1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to equipment that can be deployed at a site where potentially dangerous or environmentally damaging or messy liquid is leaking from a land-based container to collect the liquid for safe disposal.
2. Prior Art
Considerable media exposure is given to spills of large amounts of environmentally damaging liquids, particularly oil spills at sea for which the environmental damage can be extensive and readily visible. Past efforts to provide systems for confining and recovering hazardous liquids at sea are illustrated by the devices disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
Logan U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,559, issued June 25, 1968;
Paull et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,548,605, issued Dec. 22, 1970;
Siegel U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,194, issued Oct. 5, 1971;
Rainey U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,294, issued Sept. 4, 1973.
More often, however, smaller and less newsworthy spills occur on land. Such spills can also be environmentally damaging, potentially dangerous or at least inconvenient and messy to clean up. For example, land-based spills can be caused by accidents involving tanker transport vehicles resulting in leaks from ruptures of hazardous liquid containers or accidents or equipment failure at above ground storage tanks, pipelines or pumping stations. Access to the source of the leak can be difficult depending on the natural and man-made surroundings. There is no known prior system for quick and effective on-site containment and collection of hazardous liquids from different types of land-based spills.